title: Knowledge of infection control practices among intensive care nurses in a tertiary care hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The threat of hospital-acquired infections persists despite advances in the health care system. A lack of knowledge regarding infection control practices among health care workers decreases compliance with these practices. We conducted a study to assess the knowledge of infection control practices among nursing professionals at our hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 100 nurses in the intensive care units at our hospital were given a questionnaire with 40 multiple choice questions, including 10 questions each regarding hand hygiene, standard and transmission-based precautions, care bundles and general infection control practices. The responses were scored as percentages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall knowledge and awareness regarding different infection control practices were excellent (>90% positive responses) in 5% of the nursing professionals, good (80-90% positive responses) in 37%, average (70-80% positive responses) in 40% and below average (<70% positive responses) in 18%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The infection control knowledge among the nurses was fairly good; however, there is still a wide scope of improvement with regular educational programs and in-house training.
authors.affiliation: Department of Critical Care, SPS Apollo Hospitals, Ludhiana, India. drkanwal2006@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Kanwalpreet
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sodhi
authors.forename: Anupam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
authors.forename: Muktanjali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arya
authors.forename: Manender
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D009726:Nurses; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers